The Guilt Sinks In
by Quiet Wyatt
Summary: Kim has always had to save Ron from trouble, but what happens when she isn't around to protect him? And could someone come between them? Similar to So The Drama, but with my own twists and turns. probable title change
1. Ron on the Dirt

Foreword –

"Hey, Kim!"

Kim Possible pulled her head out of her locker and looked around. Running down the hall towards her was Eric Raymond. He skidded to a stop in front of her, slightly out of breath from jogging across half the school.

"What are you doing tonight?"

"Well…" Kim scrunched up her brow in thought. "…discounting some crisis, I'm free."

Eric grinned. "Great. How would you like to have dinner tonight? Around 7?"

Kim gasped. "You mean like a date?" Eric nodded.

"I was thinking I could pick you up at 6?"

Kim bobbed her head up and down, too excited to speak. Eric gave her a "here's looking at you, kid" hand gesture, turned, and jogged off. No sooner had he turned a corner in the hall then Kim found herself again being hailed. She turned in time to see her best friend, Ron Stoppable, making his way toward her through the crowded halls.

"Are we still on for tonight, KP?" he asked when he reached her. Kim's smile shrunk by a couple of molars.

"Well, you see…Ron…" But Kim's heart sank when she saw the look on Ron's face. Obviously his reaction to a response that wasn't an immediate 'yes', Ron's lips were tilted downward and the flame had gone out of his eyes. Kim found herself feeling guiltier and guiltier with each passing second.

"I know that Friday nights are 'Kim and Ron' nights, but I have this thing that I have to…" Kim let out a sigh, then her gaze rose to meet Ron's, and she smiled. "You know what, I'll meet you at Bueno Nacho. Is 6 good?"

"Sounds good, KP. I'll see you then." With a quick smile of his own, Ron turned and promptly skipped off, leaving a conflicted Kim to lean back in to her locker and slide down until she was sitting on the floor, her head in her hands. She hadn't meant to give Ron false hope, but she had just reacted out of instinct. After a moment, she decided that she would just call him later in the day and tell him that she couldn't meet up.

-----

Ron was walking home through Middleton Park. He was entertaining himself by kicking a discarded beer car down the dirt path. All around him were the sounds of nature. Birds were chirping, the breeze was whistling through the trees, and the distant laughter of the park's other visitors reached his ears. All of this was lost on Ron, however, as he was in mid-sulk. Kim had never shown up to Bueno Nacho.

"Stupid Kim, blowing me off to do something else. Fine, who needs her? I can have all the fun in the world here by myself."

"Oh come on, Stoppable, we both know that's a lie."

Shego stepped out from behind a tree; she advanced on Ron, her hands and forearms glowing green; a devilish grin plastered on her face. Ron slowly backed away from her, his hands held up, ready to repel danger. Shego halted a few feet from Ron.

"You know, I only came here to get away from Dr. D and the lab for a while. I didn't think I'd actually run into anyone; especially not you."

Ron reached into his pocket and withdrew a certain object. He brandished it towards Shego, whose face fell into a look of confusion.

"_Lord of the Flies?_ Sorry, but I don't think Piggy is gonna be much help."

Ron opened his mouth, but promptly shut it and stuffed said book back in his pocket before ("Sorry, wrong pocket.") pulling out a cell phone. He flipped it open, then punched a number and called Wade on speed dial. After two rings, he picked up. Ron turned his back on Shego and spoke in a hushed voice.

"Wade, I need Kim." He heard Wade furiously typing in the background. A second later and the genius answered him.

"Not good, Ron. She's not answering her communicator." Ron groaned.

"Not answering her communicator! What else does she have to do?" On screen, Wade shrugged.

"Sounds like you're on your own, Ronnie Boy." Shego called from where she was standing, her hands on her hips. Ron spun to face her.

"Just give her a second, she'll pick up." With that, Ron pressed _END_ and then proceeded to speed dial another number – Kim's communicator. As it rang, he whispered "You hear that, KP? Pick up."

After several seconds, Shego began to advance towards Ron again. "Maybe she found something better to do."

Her words took a minute to sink in. Ron's eyes bugged out a little. "Hey! KP's a busy person. I'm sure she has a good reason."

Shego threw back her head and laughed. She halted a few feet from Ron, her eyes on him, one eyebrow cocked. "Sounds to me like someone's in de-ny-el."

And now Ron raised an eyebrow, but in puzzlement. "No I'm not!"

Shego palmed herself in the face. "Oh come on, all the signs are there…" her voice trailed off and her hand made little circular motions, both urging Ron to at least meet her half way on this.

Several seconds passed, until… "Well, aren't you guys, like, inseparable? Maybe someone got tired of having to save your sorry butt all the time."

Ron held up his hands. "Nope, not the case at all! Kim's just busy with stuff, that's all."

Shego gave another shout of laughter. "Face it, Stoppable. She ditched you. She ditched you, and you're feeling sorry for yourself. Too bad she'll have to live with that mistake."

Ron managed to raise the other eyebrow. "Mistake?"

Shego broke into an insane grin. "Well, since_ Kimmie _decided to leave you out here on your own, it means that there is no one between myself and you. In other words, there is no one to stop me from hurting you." And with a snarl, she leapt towards him, covering the short distance and knocking Ron to the ground in less than a second.

-----

The tires of Eric's motorcycle crunched on the gravel patch abutting the driveway at the Possible house. He parked the vehicle and set the kickstand. Kim Possible gracefully hopped off and slowly pulled off her helmet. Eric, also removing his helmet, swung his leg over the cycle and turned, so that he was leaning against it. He reached out and, tentatively, took Kim's hand. This caused her to giggle slightly, but otherwise she gave no further resistance as he pulled her into an embrace. After a moment, they broke off the hug. Kim's gaze fell to the ground; her left hand snaking up to twist a few stands of red hair around her fingers. Eric gave a genuine smile.

"Kim, tonight was perfect." Kim nodded, her arms reaching up to hang around his neck, pulling him close.

"Yes. It was." She said, smiling. She ran her tongue over her dazzling white teeth before pulling him the rest of the way in and pressing her lips to his. The kiss lasted several seconds, seconds that seemed like whole glorious days to Kim, before the moment was ruined by her communicator going off. Breaking away from Eric, she pulled it out of her bag. One glance at the screen was all that she needed.

"I'm sorry, Eric. I'd better see what he wants." She made to answer Ron's call, but Eric grabbed her hand.

"Kim, let it ring. He can look after himself for one night."

"But he never calls my communicator. Not unless something major is going on."

"So what? He probably just misses you."

Kim pulled her hand, and communicator, out of Eric's grasp; she continued on to fold her arms across her chest and adopted what she believed was an annoyed facial expression. "'So what?' He could be in trouble, Eric!"

Eric shook his head. "Well then let him deal with it!" His voice, and temper, was rising. "Aren't you allowed to have some time to yourself?"

"Eric, he's my best friend! I can't just leave him to deal with it alone!"

Eric opened his mouth, but was interrupted by his cell phone ringtone: Blood Brothers by Iron Maiden. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

"Hey Dad…I'm dropping Kim off…you know, my girlfriend…you're getting off soon?...want me to pick up a pizza?...ok, see you at 10." He hung up the phone and reached for his helmet. "Listen, Kim, I need to go pick up some food for my dad, he's usually pretty tired after work. We can finish this tomorrow, ok?" With that, he started his motorcycle and began to walk it backwards out of Kim's driveway. When he reached the street, he raised the visor on his helmet and shouted "You should call Ron!" before lowering it and speeding off. Kim stood in the driveway, her arms folded and an ugly grimace plastered to her face.

-----

Shego was digging through Ron's backpack, hoping to find something that could be used either to help further Dr. Drakken's cause or give them some edge over Kim herself. A few feet away lay Ron, his unmoving form face up, his bloody and bruised skin illuminated in the full moon. Shego threw the backpack away in disgust, having found nothing remotely interesting. She was about to leave Ron lying on the ground and return to the lab and Dr. Drakken when Ron's cell phone caught her eye. She picked it up and flipped it open. There was a new voicemail. Shego smiled; perhaps this would prove useful to her.

She pressed 1 and then "send". The message began.

_Hey Ron, this is Kim. I can't make it tonight because my parents decided last minute to go out and left me with the Tweebs. I know this is our night, but I can't get out of this. We're do something tomorrow, ok? Good night, Ron._

Shego flipped the phone closed. Glancing over at Ron's motionless body, she began to gloat.

"Somebody should check their voicemail." She said in a singsong voice. Before she could toss the phone away, it began to vibrate. She glanced at the caller ID and grinned.

"You're never guess whose call-ing." She said in the same singsong voice. And with that, she flipped the phone open.

_Hey Ron, it's Kim. Did you get my message?"_

"Well hey there, Kimmie. Sorry, but Ron is feeling a little under the weather."

A/N: SO I had this Idea for a Kim Possible story a few days ago. I wanted to address the fact that Kim saves Ron frequently, and what might happen if she isn't around. I also thought it would make for a good read if she had blown him off to be with someone else. Well, technically she did call and tell him she couldn't hang out, but she lied about what she was doing, and he never got the message because he, in my story at least, doesn't check his phone often, so it seems like she blew him off. And yes, I am using Eric from So The Drama. But that's it. Drakken is not trying not take over the world, Eric is not a synth drone, and it is not the prom.


	2. Did I made you mad, Kimmie?

Ron slowly cracked his eyes open; he knew he was alive because of the horrible throbbing in his head. At first, his vision was blurred, but it dilatorily returned. The ringing in his ears, while deafening at first, was dying down to a tolerable level. He carefully sat up, his head and stomach protesting violently; his vision swan and he collapsed again. Several seconds later, he gingerly pushed himself up until he was again sitting up. He could feel something sticky and wet in his hair, and had seen too many action movies not to know what it was.

Ron gently raised his hand to his head and swept it down his scalp. He suddenly had to fight a fresh, and very strong, rush of nausea as his fingers can in contact with a sizable lump on the back of his head. He quickly removed his hand, which came away sodden with blood. Now, Ron was no stranger to seeing his own blood, but the sight of it still sickened him to some degree. He swallowed to keep his Bueno Nacho dinner down, and then changed a scan of his surroundings. To his right was the path that he had been following on his way home, and to his left was…

"You're never guess whose call-ing!" said a singsong voice; Ron groaned; the noise ripping into his head like a freight train. He shook his head, trying to relive the agony. This act, however, only served to aggravate his panging cranium, which blurred his vision and distorted his hearing once again. As his vision sharpened, he was able to make out Shego standing several feet away, his cell phone pressed to her ear. His ears ceased ringing just in time for him to hear…

" -Ron is feeling a little under the weather."

Ron was surprised and relived to hear, faintly, Kim's voice coming over the phone.

"_Shego?"_

Ron could practically imagine Kim on the other line, cell phone grasped in one hand, the other typing out a message to Wade on her communicator. In front of him, Shego began to turn, Ron's cell phone still pressed to her ear.

"Oh, he's just – " She stopped in midsentence and gaped at the nervously grinning but obviously still living Ron., who grinned sheepishly up at her. Shego dropped the cell phone and stared at Ron, her eyes wide, alert and most certainly angry.

'YOU!" she shouted at Ron. "YOU'RE STILL ALIVE?"

-----

"Shego?"

Kim almost dropped the phone in shock. Why was Shego answering Ron's phone. Perhaps more importantly, what had she done to Ron? The teen heroine felt her eyes grow wide as realization came: Shego had obviously been waiting for Ron; but how did she know that he would be walking through the park? Feeling waves of trepidation run down her spine, Kim squeezed her cell phone until she was sure that it would break. Bringing the device back up to her ear, she hissed into it, venom dripping from every syllable.

"Where. Is. My. Friend?"

"Oh, he's just – " Kim heard a shrill intake of breathe and then what sounded like the phone falling on gravel. And then she heard Shego's shriek, the volume causing her to pull the phone away from her ear.

"YOU! YOU'RE STILL ALIVE?"

Hearing this sent a wave of emotion through Kim; the teen fell to her knees, dropping the phone in the process. Tears of joy welled up in her eyes, which she wiped, knowing that this was no time to fall apart. She picked up the phone and brought it once again to her ear.

"Ron?" she asked, her voice soft and slightly shaky. "Are you – "

There was a horrible crack and the phone went dead. Kim allowed herself one second to agonize over what could have happened before she flipped her phone closed, pulled put her communicator, and punched in Wade's number. Kim didn't even give him a chance to greet her before she was already speaking.

"Wade, Shego was Ron; I need a location."

Wade cracked his knuckles, a habit Kim detested.

"Way ahead of you, Kim. He's in Middleton Park. I also called the hospital; they're on stand-by."

Kim flashed Wade a smile.

"Thanks, Wade. Send them."

Wade's trademark grin faded.

"Kim, do you think Ron is alright?"

Kim dropped her gaze from the communicator's screen. When she met Wade's eyes again, the eleven year old couldn't stifle his gasp. The Kim looking back at him did not resemble his friend; the green eyes were devoid of their usual sparkle, and instead seemed to hold a steel determination. Kim's full lips stretched into an insane grin, which sent a shiver down Wade's spine.

"He had better be…for Shego's sake."

-----

It was hard to say who was more surprised, Ron or Shego. The two stared at each other for a good ten second before the Kim's voice interrupted them.

"Ron?" said the cell phone. "Are you – " Kim's voice was suddenly cut off when Shego brought her foot crashing down on the phone, cracking it in two halves and effectively cutting Ron off from his one hope of emancipation. Shego then began advancing on Ron, her hands glowing with energy, her eyes burning with hate.

"Jeez, what are you, a freaking cockroach?" Shego yelled at him, causing Ron to timidly shrug his shoulders. He immediately regretted this, as it send fresh waves of agony shooting through his already throbbing head. Shego stopped right in front of him, bending down until she was at his level.

"You know, I gotta admit, Stoppable, you have some pretty bad luck." Ron rolled his eyes at her.

"So you just _happened_ to be here?"

Shego pretended to look hurt, but her facial muscles couldn't quite pull it off. She settled for a look of aversion; pushing out her bottom lip slightly and resting her hands on her hips.

"Dr. D was going on and on about his new geokinetic thing-a-ma-whosit, so I left for a bit. That guy and his _evil _plans, you know?"

"Lemme guess, he was talking about something smart, and you just couldn't keep up." said Ron in a condescending voice, which caused Shego to lose patience and pick him up by the shirt collar. Ron struggled in vain, thus prompting Shego to slam him into a nearby tree, sending yet another wave of agonizing pain flashing through Ron's head; his view of Shego's face not three inches from his own faded to black for a few seconds before gradually returning. Ron grinned, blood staining his otherwise white teeth.

" So you left your evil lair…and came to the park?"

With a growl, Shego tossed Ron aside, sending him sideways into a metal street lamp. There was a sickening crunch and Ron screamed in pain as he slid to the ground, his left leg twisted underneath him in an unnatural fashion. Shego took two giant strides and was on him in a second, stomping one foot into his torso. She began speaking, pairing each word with a kick to the stomach.

"You. Are. The. Most. Infuriating. Person. Alive!"

She brought her foot down once again, but this time she didn't remove it; she began grinding her heel into Ron's sternum. Ron gasped with pain as blood began to flow from his mouth. Shego leaned down, easing up the pressure on Ron's chest in the process; when she was mere inches from Ron's face, she spoke in a low menacing voice.

"And I happen to like the park. It helps me…" she rose back up, bringing her foot knee high, "RELAX!"

She brought her heel smashing down. Ron gave a cry of agony as he felt one of his ribs break. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Shego's grinning face and a _flash_ of red behind her.

-----

Kim landed in a crouch some ten feet behind Shego. Kim fought the urge to yell out as Shego brought her foot down into Ron's chest; the sound that Ron made almost broke her heart. So she forced herself to watch as Shego planted a final kick into the chest of the unconscious Ron and turned to leave. She had taken only two steps when she froze, her brain still processing the figure standing in front of her. When the image of Kim did register, Shego put on smirk and pointed over her shoulder.

"You're a little late, aren't you, Kimmie? I think your sidekick could have used your help about…oh, ten minutes ago."

Kim's expression remained static; perhaps someone how was really paying attention could have noted the slight narrowing of her eyes and lips, but Shego was nowhere near focused enough to notice such minute details. Kim spoke, her voice dangerously soft.

"What did you do to him, Shego?"

Shego brushed a strand of black hair out of her face as she shrugged. "Oh, a little of this, a little of that; usually bad guy stuff."

Kim suddenly leapt into the air, springing towards Shego. She spun in midair, bringing her leg across to come crashing down on her green foe. Shego moved like lightning, grabbing Kim's leg and spinning her around, sending Kim flying over her shoulder. Kim landed on her back, skidded to a stop and jumped to her feet, hands raised to repel danger. She turned her gaze to where she had seen Shego last, only to see Shego's fist, glowing green, racing towards her. Kim raised her hands in a block, shielding her face and neck from Shego's attack. Though moderately successful, she still felt icy pressure as iron claws viscously ripped three small but deep cuts on her back of her forearm. She let out a gasp as she leapt away, blood spattering the ground. Shego raised an eyebrow.

"So the great Kim Possible _can _bleed."

Kim landed and spun to face her adversary; she grasped her forearm and put pressure on the trio of cuts, attempting to stop the bleeding. Standing five feet from her, Shego laughed.

"That won't do any good, Possible." She held up a hand, "I treat these bad boys with a little _anticoagulant _I developed. Good luck trying to stop it."

Kim groaned; she did not have time to fight Shego and deal with the cuts in her arm, so she decided to go on the offensive. She again leapt towards Shego, but this time landed right in front of her and aimed a high elbow into Shego's face. Unfortunately, Shego's kick, launched just seconds earlier, connected with the side of Kim's face before the strike could be completed, knocking her off balance. Kim dropped to one knee for a second before rising and hastily backing away. Shego did not pursue her, instead choosing that moment to taunt her opponent.

"You should have seen the look on Stoppable's face when he realized that you weren't coming." Shego paused for a moment to block a spinning back kick that Kim aimed at her. "And you should have heard the excuses he made for you." Shego raised her arm and blocked Kim's left hook. "He kept saying that you were busy, or that you had a lot of important stuff going on, but you could see the disappointment in his eyes. I really think he gave up on you." She laughed as Kim launched a flurry of fast but predictable punches at her. Expertly, Shego dodged or stopped each blow. She then reached out and grabbed Kim by the hair, pulling her in close. She whispered menacingly in Kim's ear.

"Do you know what it felt like to crack your sidekick's skull?"

At this, Kim's eyes grew wide; she let out a cry of rage and, gripping Shego's arm, ripped her foe's hand, and a number of red hairs, from her person. She then launched a powerful side kick to Shego's head, putting all her power behind it. Shego__stepped___into _the attack, caught the leg, and brought her hand, and iron claws, slicing upwards across Kim's torso. The teen screamed as blood rose up to stain her shirt and jacket and then continued on to run down her legs and pool at her feet, soaking her shoes. Shego jumped back and stood staring at Kim. A siren, unnoticed by the two earlier, was getting louder by the second; Shego leered at her teenaged nemesis.

"Oh, did I make you mad, Kimmie? You really shouldn't let things bother you like that." She held up her hand as Kim began walking, shakily, forward. "Easy there, princess. I wouldn't exert myself too much. You'll just die faster that way. Besides, it's time for me to leave. I have no intention of going to jail."

With that, Shego turned and sprinted away from Kim, quickly disappearing into the darkness. Kim limped over to Ron, all the while trying to stem the flow of blood from the lacerations on her figure. She reached the limp form of her sidekick and, bending down, grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse. She found one and, weak though it was, she let out a sob of relief. She flopped down next to Ron's body and began to slowly run the fingers of one hand through his hair, the other one still clutching her side.


End file.
